§ Lord Lairdasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord President on 16 December 2004 (WA 102 ) concerning underspend by the Northern Ireland Department of Social Development, why there were delays in the commencement and uptake of grants in relation to European Union community initiatives such as Interreg III and Urban II; how much money is involved; and for what projects. [HL726]
§ Baroness AmosThe process of engaging an implementer who would be close to the communities targeted by the department's Interreg IIIA measure took longer than anticipated. The sum of money involved was £467,000 and no specific projects were adversely affected.
Weak community capacity giving rise to a lower volume of project application meant that the Urban II programme focusing on inner north Belfast did not spend as projected. The underspend against forecast was £316,000.
In both cases the money was not lost to the programmes as the amount underspent was available in the next financial year.